Optical beam switches and systems employing the optical beam switches are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,957, issued May 21, 1991, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,515, issued Mar. 10, 1992, both hereby incorporated by reference.
The optical switch described alters the path of an optical beam from an outlet window of an optically transparent photoelastic material between a stressed beam position and an unstressed beam position by about 0.050. The optical switch includes an optically transparent photoelastic material whose index of refraction changes with mechanical stress and means to include piezoelectric plates secured to the photoelastic material to impart a mechanical force parallel to the surface of the photoelastic material and perpendicular to the optical beam to alter the optical beam path between two predetermined positions of close proximity by a change in throughput angle.
It is desirable to provide a new optical beam scanner to scan continuously an optical beam, and application systems, and methods using the optical scanner to provide for single or multiple dimension scanning at high speeds over wide scanning angles.